There are a bunch of tools available out there for 'proper' Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD). Many of them cost money, many of them are complicated and attempt to tick all of the boxes for every kind of diagram under the sun. As a developer, I often only need to get involved with class diagrams, and when I'm hashing out designs, all I need is something quick and easy.
Enter NClass.
This is a very quick and simple to use free & open source application (running under .NET) which you can design Java or C# class diagrams with. It's not overly advanced, and doesn't have every feature under the Sun, but this is what makes it such a pleasure to use.
One of the cooler features is that you can sketch out a bunch of classes/interfaces, and generate the files which would comprise the classes. This can be excellent when you have an internal framework which requires a load of new files, or if you simply have a lot of new classes to create. The generated files will take all of the fields, methods, inheritance hierarchy, etc, from the diagram; so it's a great way of getting classes set up initially.
For example, this class structure in NClass:
Becomes these auto generated Java classes:
Note that it didn't automatically implement the interface method, but maybe we want to make our class abstract, and maybe our IDE will inform us we need to implement the method.
If you name the project appropriately, you can even get the package imports to match an existing project.
So if you're after a free, quick, and handy class diagram editor; give NClass a go:
http://nclass.sourceforge.net/downloads.html
Happy Designing!
Enter NClass.
This is a very quick and simple to use free & open source application (running under .NET) which you can design Java or C# class diagrams with. It's not overly advanced, and doesn't have every feature under the Sun, but this is what makes it such a pleasure to use.
One of the cooler features is that you can sketch out a bunch of classes/interfaces, and generate the files which would comprise the classes. This can be excellent when you have an internal framework which requires a load of new files, or if you simply have a lot of new classes to create. The generated files will take all of the fields, methods, inheritance hierarchy, etc, from the diagram; so it's a great way of getting classes set up initially.
For example, this class structure in NClass:
Becomes these auto generated Java classes:
Note that it didn't automatically implement the interface method, but maybe we want to make our class abstract, and maybe our IDE will inform us we need to implement the method.
If you name the project appropriately, you can even get the package imports to match an existing project.
So if you're after a free, quick, and handy class diagram editor; give NClass a go:
http://nclass.sourceforge.net/downloads.html
Happy Designing!
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